Tuesday, June 23, 2009

TdN Days 2 and 3

I didn't take that many pictures on the road on days 2 and 3, so I'll combine those and then put more pics from Ponca in the next post. Day 2 was Tilden to Bloomfield, day 3 was from Bloomfield to Ponca.

We started the day on a flat road, heading north. After about30 miles, Bill, David, Alisa, and Bruce headed further northto get in a century for Bill's birthday.

Daniel hammering up a hill. I have a fun story about ridingwith Daniel and his father I'll share in person. If I put everythingin the blog, then I won't have anything left to tell folks

on the next ride :)

Some of the rest stops were quite interesting. In Hartingtonthere was supposed to be a brunch in a park - but whenwe got there they weren't even close to being ready.Sometimes the towns don't really believe Susan when shetells them how early we will arrive.Since the brunch wasn't ready,this lady and kids garnered a huge crowd for homemadecookies and lemonade.

At some point early on day 3, Bruce, Alisa and I passed a large tent ina field to our left. I thought it was for an afternoon wedding, butBruce saw a wine tasting sign, so we turned around and sampledsome Nebraska wine at 9:30 in the morning.

At another stop in St. James, some farm ladies have grouped togetherto form a community market place in an old building to help keepthe community alive. We got there too early to be ready for lunch,but it was fun to look around.

The pie stop in Maskell on day 3 was also a highlight.

At the end of day 3, Bruce, Alisa and I stopped in Newcastle fora great lunch. It was clean and good :) From here into Ponca,we rode through a steady drizzle - about 12 miles ofbeing completely soaked.

Not sure you would have wanted a whole bottle - not the greatest wine in the world. Bob T. was riding with a complete loaded touring setup and bought a bottle to put in his bag. We drank it the last night in camp - to mixed reviews, at best.

Both Kew and the tandem riders were missed - I got numerous questions about all three of you.